FoodDrinkEurope president Jesus Serafin Perez accompanied EC vice president Tajani on the visit, in addition to a delegation of 20 other high level EU business representatives. The mission lasted from May 10-12.
The group had three objectives. They were: to stress the importance of regulation for trade, to build on the approach developed in the Transatlantic Economic Council to anticipate future challenges and to discuss ways to boost Europe’s export potential.
The event allowed Europe’s food and drink industry to raise priorities with the deputy assistant to the US president responsible for economic affairs Michael Froman, EU ambassador João Vale de Almeida and other business representatives.
“Participating in the Commissioner Tajani delegation, FoodDrinkEurope wished to build better grounds for such future bilateral dialogue,” a spokeswoman for FoodDrinkEurope told FoodNavigator.
Issues discussed included the smooth continuation of imports to the US of products containing eggs and increasing transparency of US internal legislation at state level for European exporters, said FoodDrinkEurope.
The group also sought to eliminate import restrictions on uncooked meat products and make the approval process for meat processing facilities smoother.
Areas such as removing import restrictions on pasteurised milk products and addressing tariff quotas on milk protein concentrates and casein and caseinates were also covered.
“FoodDrinkEurope believes the most significant issue to Europe’s food and drink sector are regulatory barriers that act as a hindrance to trade,” the trade group said in a statement. “In addition, the potential creation of unnecessary new barriers can and should be avoided.
“As Europe’s food and drink industry is actively trying to improve its export opportunities and competitiveness worldwide in order to promote sustainable growth, the mission provides an important step in the right direction to achieving this goal.”